Now that you downloaded your pictures from AOL before December 31, 2008, you probably want to know what to do with them afterward. I left off in my last tutorial guiding AOL users to download their AOL Pictures albums to their computer. This tutorial will suggest a few options for you on how you wish to preserve and carry on your photo sharing experiences on the Web.
At this point, you should have a large ZIP file containing your albums in multiple folders. (Thank you, AOL, for doing this right!). If you do not have a ZIP file, hurry up and download a copy of all your AOL Pictures now. AOL will be shutting down their photo sharing service at the end of the month.
Here are a few suggestions for what to do with the photos:
- Move the photos to your computers My Pictures folder. Mac users could just as easily import into iPhoto, as an equivalent.
- Burn a copy of your photos on a disc for long(er)-term storage.
- Upload photos to an online photo sharing Web site.
I don’t know what else to do with photos beside those options above. If you think of any, shoot me a comment. 
How to Move AOL Pictures to Your ‘Pictures’ Folder
Ideally, you would move your pictures to your “My Pictures” folder to have instant access to your photos. In short, it involves unzipping the ZIP file to your Pictures folder. If you don’t have an unzipping application, I strongly endorse 7zip, as it’s free and very lightweight. Mac users: Expand the ZIP file into a new folder, drag that folder to iPhoto.
- Locate the AOL Pictures ZIP file.
- Right click the file, it may look like a folder with a zipper on it.
- Hover your mouse over 7-Zip then select Extract to “AOLPictures-screenname\”. This is the fourth option.
- A new window will appear displaying the status of the extraction. It could take a few seconds to several minutes depending on how many pictures you have. Wait a few moments for it to complete.
- Observe the differences in the icons, which is a ZIP file and a folder.
- Open your My Pictures Folder and drag the AOLPictures… folder into there.
How to Burn/Write a CD or DVD with Your Photos
In addition to saving photos to your computer, I recommend making an external backup on a CD or DVD. Another benefit for making a DVD with photos, you can usually put it inside your DVD player and you can browse photos on your TV. (And they look great on HDTVs…)
- If you don’t have disc burning software, download CDBurnerXP for free. It works on Vista, too. You don’t have to pay for any CD burning software.
- Open CDBurnerXP and create a new Data Disc.
- Browse for your extracted ZIP folder (see above) along the upper region of the screen. Find the folder(s) of pictures and drag them to the lower right region of the Window.
- After you confirm your folders are ready to burn, click the Burn icon,
. - When prompted, I recommend Finalizing the disc. This is a more compatible way for DVD readers to read the disc properly.
How to Migrate AOL Pictures to a Photo Sharing Web site
For many, AOL Pictures was great because of their accessibility, convenience and the photos stored there were reliable. Today, two large providers serve as great homes for your pictures: Flickr and Picasa. Flickr is beneficial because the integration with your Yahoo account. Picasa is great because of the integration with your Google account and the accompanying application (Picasa) which make photo organization seamless.
Flickr is very good and allows professional (and amateur photographers) to upload their work with their own licenses, geographic data and offers high-quality photo storage. The caveat is that you are limited to 100MB upload per day, which professional photographers can surpass easily. Everyone else, it’s great. Their tagging, descriptions and social networking features have led Flickr to their success that they have today.
Picasa is also a very good choice, but they don’t have all the “social” features like Flickr has. It’s a safe area that lets you store all your photos there. Personally, I use Picasa to store my more “private” photos, where as I use Flickr for my public photo gallery. (Flickr also allows your to mark photos as private, too.)
If you use Flickr, consider using Flickr Uploadr, it’s a free application that you can easily upload your pictures to Flickr in a few mouse clicks. It’s free, but will require you to sign in to your Yahoo/Flickr account to authorize once and you’ll be set forever.
Google aficionados will love the ease of use of Google Picasa. First, you should download and install Picasa (for free). Second, setup your Picasa Web. Third, after you open the Picasa application, click the Web Albums hyperlink along the upper right corner to authenticate and upload your pictures to Google.
For a simpler, lighter use photo hosting Web site, you might enjoy Photobucket. Photobucket is decent because it’s incredibly easy to use and is ideal for hosting images you display on the Web, usually consistent of less than 1024×768 pixels large. Their free service has some limitations, but accommodates most people’s needs.
If you’re an über-leet pro, who has your own server, preferably running PHP, you could bypass Flickr and Picasa entirely and use Gallery. I have it on my server and it works great for psuedo permanent photo storage. Really good for organization and long-term keeping.
If you have any questions or tips on migrating your AOL Pictures over to Flickr, Picasa or Photobucket, drop a comment below and I’ll help you.